His response to the coronavirus could come to define Boris Johnson’s first year in office

Premierships are often defined by unexpected events. When Tony Blair was re-elected in 2001, few thought that his time in office would be defined by terrorism and the Middle East. Boris Johnson’s first full year in Downing Street may well come to be defined by his handling of coronavirus, I say in The Sun this morning.

Over the last week, concern in Whitehall over the disease has shot up. ‘The infection curve in Italy and Germany has changed things’, says one of those spearheading the government’s response.

Most popular

Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

‘We’re not far off it absorbing all of the government’s energies’, one Downing Street figure tells me. The intensity of the preparations for it are, this source continues, ‘beginning to feel like no deal planning did in the autumn’ which dominated the time of ministers and civil servants.